


Bitter Lethe

by Ree Fireparrot (reefireparrot)



Category: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Angst, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-23
Updated: 2017-08-23
Packaged: 2018-12-19 04:30:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11890038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reefireparrot/pseuds/Ree%20Fireparrot
Summary: (Note: Title is a reference to the legendary river, not the character Sailor Lethe). In the dusky world between life and death, between wakefulness and sleep, a man struggles to remember who he lost.





	Bitter Lethe

At first there was nothing but darkness and silence. It was neither hot nor cold, and as the man moved around he could not feel the ground beneath his feet or the air moving about. He knew nothing, not even his own name. But slowly things started to return to him.

First was touch – it was getting cooler, though not cold, and he could finally feel the flat, smooth surface under his feet as he walked. There was a slight breeze.

Next was sight. The surface he was walking on was a polished, milky-white marble-like stone of some kind, and it stretched to as far as the eye could see, broken up occasionally by metallic, silver bare-limbed trees surrounded at the base by broken pieces of the stone ground as if the trees had had suddenly and forcefully broken through. There was a faint, shifting grayish light above, and the sky resembled the surface of turbulent water from below.

Sound came next, though the man didn’t notice at first – the only thing that could be heard was a faint crackling sound in the distance, like electricity moving through high tension lines.

His knowledge returned soon after, but he could not make sense of the details. His name was both Endymion and Mamoru; he was a medical student of little importance and he was the future ruler of Earth; he part of the planet’s royal family; he was an orphan with no family; he had four best friends; he had no friends…

The last bit of information was the most distressing somehow. The four friends felt important, yet he knew nothing about them. He tried to recall their faces, nothing. Their voices, their names, basic personality traits. Still, nothing. No memories of them. Yet they were important to him.

An image appeared before him, a hazy, indistinct figure. Somehow he knew it was one of his friends. It was close enough to touch, yet when Mamoru-Endymion reached out it was just beyond his fingertips. He willed the image to become clearer, and it did. It was a person. Tall, slightly buff, dark skin tone. He could not make out the face, but desperately wanted to.

“Stop,” the figure said, the tone firm but kind. Mamoru-Endymion knew that voice, now that he heard it. But nothing else.

It was a moment before Mamoru-Endymion remembered how to speak. “But– you’re important to me. Yet somehow…somehow I don’t know you. Your name, if I could just–“

“No, Master,” it – he – said. There was sadness in his voice. “You’ll just hurt us both, in the end.”

“I need to remember–“

“No you don’t. You’ll do fine without us. You’ll be happy. You’ll be at peace.”

“I’ll miss you, I’ll–”

“No. The hole in your heart will be filled. You will not remember us. You will not even remember what happened here, if I can help it.”

“Wait! Don’t– I remember your name now! It was K–”

“I’m sorry,” the figure cut him off and grew indistinct again, growing and enveloping Mamoru-Endymion in darkness. Suddenly he knew nothing again. He could just cling onto the last thing he remembered, but only for a moment, before it faded too.


End file.
